The Travel South Dakota Stories

“It's kind of interesting that people that come here to Crazy Horse Memorial, because it's almost like there's a spiritual calling. They don't know quite what it is. But they feel it.”

– Paul LaRoche, Lakota tribe member and founder of the band Brulé.

The great Lakota Sioux Nation have become the international symbol of America’s native people. Over 60,000 Lakota Native Americans live in South Dakota, and they believe that their very creation began in the Black Hills. Join us as we delve deep into South Dakota’s rich native American history and culture. We begin our adventure by stepping out onto the arm of the Crazy Horse memorial with head carver Caleb Zilokowski (the grandson of Korczak Ziolkowski, who started it back in 1947).

At the base of Crazy Horse, we join Paul LaRoche who has been coming to Crazy Horse for 25 years with his award-winning band Brulé. Through his music and dance we learn about Paul’s journey back into a Native American life he knew nothing about.

Along the way we uncover what makes Native American culture in South Dakota so unique.

And as you hear these stories and the history of this fascinating and colorful culture, you’ll soon discover that you need to experience South Dakota for yourself.

Brian Thacker, presenter

Thank you to everyone who featured on this show:

Caleb and Vaughn Ziolkowski, Crazy Horse Memorial

Joe Pulliam, Seven Council Fires Native Art

Paul LaRoche, Brulé

David Flute, for singing the Native prayer

Recorded on-location, this audio adventure is designed to do more than just let you hear what it’s like to be there; it’s designed to let you feel what it’s like for real.

Find out more at www.travelsouthdakota.com where you'll find lots of inspiration, ideas and everything else you need to know to plan your great South Dakota adventure.

Produced by Armchair Productions, the audio experts for the travel industry www.armchair-productions.com

“Nobody's down here except for us ghost people and the hotel staff. And some of the hotel staff in the past wouldn't come down here by themselves. Things happen in here. Things have happened to me.”

– Kate, Ghost Tour Guide at the Bullock Hotel, Deadwood

Tales of the Wild West and lawless frontiers are ingrained in American culture - and in Deadwood, the discovery of riches in the southern Black Hills in 1874 kicked off one of the largest gold rushes in America. Not long after, Deadwood became a rough-and-ready boomtown that steadily lured bands of outlaws, gamblers, and gunslingers. Join us as we mosey down Deadwood’s streets in search of famed tales and legendary residents from this wild frontier. We begin our adventure in Saloon No 10, where we join a local gunslinger (or an actor who plays a gunslinger - in daily gunfights in the streets of Deadwood) for a game of poker at the table where Wild Bill Hickok was shot dead.

We then head down into the dark basement bar of the Bullock Hotel chasing ghosts and getting well and truly spooked.

Lastly, we end up, as many locals have ended up, at Moriah Cemetery. There we make the pilgrimage to Wild Bill’s grave where visitors have left flowers, bullets, and small bottles of Jack Daniels.

Through it all, we discover that Deadwood is truly alive. Well, besides the ghosts. It’s a place where the wild west spirit lives on. You can feel it – and the former coarse and cavorting town is now a lot less rough, but just as much fun.

Brian Thacker, presenter

Thank you to everyone who featured on this show:

Andy Mosher, Deadwood Alive

Kate McGraw, Bullock Hotel Ghost tours

We’d like to thank our gunslinging Andy Mosher and our ghostly guide Kate McGraw who gave us their time and stories.

Recorded on-location, this audio adventure is designed to do more than just let you hear what it’s like to be there; it’s designed to let you feel what it’s like for real.

Find out more at www.travelsouthdakota.com where you'll find lots of inspiration, ideas and everything else you need to know to plan your great South Dakota adventure.

Produced by Armchair Productions, the audio experts for the travel industry www.armchair-productions.com

In Africa, people go on safari in search of the Big Five: the Lion, Leopard, Rhino, Elephant and Buffalo. But in South Dakota, you can go in search of the huge five: Tyrannosaurus Rex, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Raptor and Mammoth. South Dakota is a major hub for paleontology and in the past three decades alone some of the most famous dinosaurs in history have been unearthed here.

Join us as we head out with Paleo Adventures in the northern Black Hills on a dig for 67-million-year-old T-Rex teeth and Stegosaurus bones. We then head down the road from Custer State Park, which was home to something wilder and woolier than bison: mammoths. In 1974 a mass graveyard of mammoths was found here and today it’s now a museum built over an active dig site. We join the dig, work on mammoth bones in the fossil preparation lab and find a whole lot of mammoth dung in the archives.

Brian Thacker, presenter

Thank you to everyone who featured in this episode:

Walter Stein and Ethan Turpin from Paleo Adventures

Dr Chris Jass, Kelly Lubbers and Alex Gardner from The Mammoth Site

Recorded on-location, this audio adventure is designed to do more than just let you hear what it’s like to be there; it’s designed to let you feel what it’s like for real.

Find out more at www.travelsouthdakota.com where you'll find lots of inspiration, ideas and everything else you need to know to plan your great South Dakota adventure.

Produced by Armchair Productions, the audio experts for the travel industry www.armchair-productions.com

In the winter of 1879, a man by the name of Charles Ingalls brought his family to South Dakota, fell in love with the area and filed for a formal homestead in the small community of De Smet. Charles Ingalls was the father of Laura Ingalls, the author of The Little House on the Prairie series.

Join us as we roll across the prairie in a horse-drawn cart to Laura’s homestead, take part in a spelling bee in the 1889 Little Prairie School, drop into rehearsals for the Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant and uncover treasures in the archive room at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society Museum.

Brian Thacker, presenter

Thank you to everyone who featured in this episode:

Ann Lesch from the Ingalls Homestead - Christie Hubbard from the pageant society - Mary Jo Wirtz from the Memorial society

Recorded on-location, this audio adventure is designed to do more than just let you hear what it’s like to be there; it’s designed to let you feel what it’s like for real.

Find out more at www.travelsouthdakota.com where you'll find lots of inspiration, ideas and everything else you need to know to plan your great South Dakota adventure.

Produced by Armchair Productions, the audio experts for the travel industry www.armchair-productions.com

As soon as we walked into the barracks at Fort Sisseton, we were handed muskets - heavy Springfield 63s from the Civil war era.

That’s because we enlisted in the army. The Union Army that is.

Join us as we march back in time to 1864 at the annual Sisseton historical festival, where calvary, artillery and infantry reenactors come together and bring the camp to life for a weekend, with period accurate food and music, military demonstrations, dances and much more.

But we aren’t just there to watch the festival. We are in it. Listen as we take part in marching drills and then perform them in front of a big crowd, join some old-timers from the cavalry regiment for some tales around a blazing fire, sleep in the haunted military hospital and step on toes at the Military Ball.

Brian Thacker, presenter

Thank you to everyone who featured in this episode:

Ali Tonsfeldt from Fort Sisseton

Captain Bruce Bekkering and Amy from the Cavalry troop

Captain Kevin Ganz and the rest of the 13th Sioux Falls regiment

Recorded on-location, this audio adventure is designed to do more than just let you hear what it’s like to be there; it’s designed to let you feel what it’s like for real.

Find out more at www.travelsouthdakota.com where you'll find lots of inspiration, ideas and everything else you need to know to plan your great South Dakota adventure.

Produced by Armchair Productions, the audio experts for the travel industry www.armchair-productions.com